Owen Barder proposes an interesting remedy towards such vagueness: starting with the highest common denominator, coalition of willing donors should work in parallel to the official process to implement their own (higher) standards of transparency. They’d lead other donors by example and exert peer pressure on them. Taxpayers in non-complying donor countries should join in pressuring their governments for adhering to those higher standards (the full post is here).

The weakness of recipient countries in pulling their weight behind better standards partially comes from the fact that not all of them share the same priorities. For example, post-conflict and fragile states have been trying to highlight the uniqueness of their needs as aid recipients. (Here’s a good post about what success at Busan would look like for conflict-affected countries).